Category Archives: sustainability

affordability and sustainability

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As I was delivering a bid to win workshop yesterday we covered the issue of project prices and costs, and as usual had the debate about the high cost of low price.  The trick is to break the cycle of lowest cost tendering of course, but when we consider the amount of waste in the industry, waste in all of its forms, what used to be called MUDA in TQM days:

1/3 of all hard materials arriving at the site gate not used for intended purpose

skips cost £1500 not £100 each time when real and actual costs are taken into account

there is 35% wasted time in the industry – time from rework, waiting for detail, waiting for material, for preceding trades, etc etc

there is the assumed material wastage figure of 30% for our sector

…. the list goes on

Add into this debate the cost of green build, the perceived added cost of building sustainability (not only in design but also in local labour, local materials) and there starts to appear a no brainer.  I use the word perceived on purpose – there are affordable new homes being built to good sustainability standards at next to no additional costs – such as the GreenGuage homes at Lingwood .

But why do we waste 30% on one hand and complain about additional costs to build green on the other?

So a suggestion for comment:

Tackle the waste (MUDA) in our sector, by selecting on ability to recover these waste costs,  taking us away from the need to compete on lowest cost, compete (on sustainability issues – wow there is a thought)

…the savings generated will cover the profits of the supply side, AND cover the costs of green build AND allow for us to deal with social and diversity issues

…and of course lead to lower construction cost ,  a resilient and better fit for purpose, people and planet  sector.

sustainability and the crunch

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The UKGBC released results of a survey earlier this week, which should be seen as important reminder that sustainability is here to stay despite the economic situation.

Results released today from a poll held during a webinar hosted by the UK Green Building Council have revealed that British companies see sustainability as a growth area over the next 3 years, despite the current financial crisis. More than 92% of respondents felt that sustainability would either grow as an issue or stay at the same level despite the credit crunch.

27% said that the financial crisis has had no adverse effect on their organisation’s efforts to tackle sustainability and more than half (55.54%) said it had caused it to become an even bigger focus for them over the past 6 months.

The general consensus from respondents was that during these times of uncertainty, it is important for government to stick to ambitious green targets, maintaining the direction of travel for policy and regulation. More than 96% either agreed or strongly agreed with this statement.

This was supported recently via colleague Pam Broviak, who recently sent live tweets and comments (via Twitter) from the US GreenBuild08 conference:

Me: whats the buzz re green v credit crunch ?

Pam:  everyone says it really hasn’t affected it a lot

Of course if we consider the triple bottom line, of environmental, social AND economic sustainability this makes sense. But as has been commented here before the survivors of this financial crisis will be those who have resilient practices and approaches in place – and that this must include social and environmental

government to focus on 50% construction waste reduction

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Waste and recycling minister Jane Kennedy has revealed that tackling business waste is to be a “top priority”

as reported on www.letsrecycle.com

Ms Kennedy explained that the Government would now develop proposals aimed at supporting businesses to look at ways they could reduce, reuse and recycle their waste, with a particular focus falling on small businesses. She added that the government hoped to offer support in light of Envirowise research which claimed businesses spend 4% of their annual turnover on waste disposal.

One area that the minister said that she hoped to make some real headway with regards to waste reduction and recycling was the construction and demolition sectors, with Ms Kennedy keen to build on targets to halve the amount of waste generated in these sectors by 2012.

Identifying work already done in this area, the minister said she believed the 2007 Waste Strategy for England had “rightly identified” construction and demolition waste as in need of action, leading to the Sustainable Construction Strategy launched in June and the legal requirement for each business to have a Site Waste Management Plans, which the minister believed would play a part in keeping focus on waste at this time of economic instability.

——

All good news, but reliance on Site Waste Management Plans to acheive 50% reduction in waste is not the way forward and more empahsis should be on eliminating waste, not simply finding better ways to mange waste after it has been created.

In addition one of the biggest moans from site contractors I hear at the moment, across the country, is the lack of real engagement from clients in driving Site Waste Management Plans

And as to spending 4% of their annual turnover on waste disposal this seems very low for the built environment sector when the real cost of skips is estimated at £1500, not the £100 costed for, and the estimated waste in the sector is at 30%, and DEFRA suggesting that one third of solid materials delivered to a project is wasted.

Previous isite related posts:

resource efficiency could save construction industry millions

beyond waste management

carbon management and waste management event

UKGBC task group too important to be so narrow?

sustainable construction commitments launched

are EPC’s working

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Fellow bloggers Phil at ZeroChampion and Adrian at McFilter have commented recently on the feedback from their EPC (Energy Performance Certificates) assessments and made the observation that the recommendations do nothing more than suggest low energy lighting. I hear the same from friends who have undertaken EPC’s recently and asked me what can they really do to improve the banding.

With EPC’s being seen as a key tool in shifting the energy performance within existing housing stock (and indeed on commercial and public buildings) surely this has to be better.

Also this week They Work for Us posted results of Lib Dem Shadow Housing Minister, Sarah Teather, question, “How many domestic energy performance certificates have been registered on the central database for properties in each rating band”, Iain Wright, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the DCLG, responded with a breakdown of the numbers lodged on the central database in his written reply.

Rating Number lodged
A 228
B 50,210
C 315,623
D 526,613
E 352,354
F 117,916
G 33,035

As expected D is the most common band, but the majority are D and worst. And just what are the 228 A’s doing to achieve top marks – surely this is the information that should be relayed down to the other bands.

This post also gives me the opportunity to use WordPress new Poll tool, so here goes:

on low carbon existing homes

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Currently reading around the greening of existing homes, the following links are of interest and indicate the way forward perhaps:

Rob ‘s Axis Design Architects award winning eco terrace in Newcastle-Under-Lyme that demonstrates how existing Victorian terrace properties can be refurbished to today’s housing standards.

ECD’s Terraced house refurbishment, Mottingham, London considered use of products should ensure that the retrofit of a social-housing property achieves an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions.

More to follow….

If you have further examples please add in the comments

on the future of sustainability standards

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Last nights Lancashire Built Environment’s Pecha Kucha evening exploring the theme of affordability or sustainability mentioned the sustainability standards and codes more than once.  Listening to the other presentations brought back two items which I feel need much more publicity.

Firstly Phil Clark‘s (Zerochampion) Will There Be One Global Green Building Standard to Rule Them All? article which was carried on Jetson Green recently discussing the possibility of one global standard.  Is it already shaping up for world dominance of LEED (possible) or BREEAM (unlikely) or something similar (possible)?

Secondly Pam Broviaks pecha kucha presentation Greening the Globe to be2camp2008 last month. The presentations can be viewed here) Fittingly, delivered over the web (from Illinois into London) Pam’s presentation gives one of the most concise overviews of the many global sustainability or environmental standards out there.  Essential viewing to understand what is happening, and how all that best practice must surely start to come together into the global standard.

on zero carbon britain

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Reading zerocarbonbritain that details how Britain can eliminate emissions from fossil fuels in 20 years and break our dependence on imported energy.

In relation to buildings it requires …

“changes to the building stock that may initially be unpalatable to traditional thinkers and environmentalists alike, due to the scale of demolition, new build, and refurbishment required”

Report can be downloaded here

on low-carbon existing homes

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From the UKGBC website, will comment when I have time to digest!

UK-GBC Releases new report

Report submitted to Government 13/1008

After a summer of stakeholder engagement, including a ‘webinar’- an online seminar – which attracted around 100 participants, the report on Low Carbon Existing Homes has been submitted to Government this morning and is available to download here. The appendices are available here and the Executive Summary of the report is available here. This is a landmark report in terms of the number of organisations that have contributed to it and the importance Government attached to the process. It will go forward to inform Government’s energy efficiency consulta  ion later in the year, and the resulting Low Carbon Homes strategy next spring.

The report can also be downloaded directly from here low carbon existing housing

be2camp count down

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With only four days until be2camp meets in London, this blog over the next few days will feature updates of what you can expect, and profile some of the events, speakers, and our sponsors.

More information and details of registration (its free to register) can be found at http://www.be2camp.com

OK, the initial ‘keynotes’ are shaping up like this, so far…

09:30 Registration and networking

10:00 Welcome, introductions, housekeeping, sponsors, be2camp story,

People, planet, productivity

Death to Email! (Suw Charman-Anderson)

Free our data (Charles Arthur, The Guardian)

Free our mapping response – data  (Live from Angus Scown, Australia)

11.00  Coffee then 3 streams of concurrent sessions

13:45 – AEC Design in Second Life, Aloft Hotels (Live from Second Life Jon Brouchoud)

14.00 then 3 streams of concurrent sessions, including live link ups from Second Life

17:30 Pecha Kucha

Remember be2camp is based upon the barcamp, unconference form of event, so things will evolve and change on the day – what would you like to see or share to inprire others?

Keep in touch via twitter on @be2camp or the be2camp website

be2camp founders and un-organisers are: martin brown, paul wilkinson, jodie miners, pam broviak

Contact be2camp via be2camp@gmail.com

Next blog will cover …. Stream One ….Collaborating through Web2.0

on public building epc’s

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The UK Communities and Local Government government website states

Our buildings are responsible for almost 50 per cent of the UK’s energy consumption and carbon emissions.

October 1st marked the date by which UK public buildings have to display their energy performance for buildings and facilities as an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate). Currently around 18,000 buildings, including town halls, museums, schools and job centres, are being tested.

The Guardian’s Hall of Shame lists a number of very prominent and public buildings that score G ( on the same A (good) to G (bad) as white goods). There is within the article a number of calls for refurbishment of these buildings – many less than 5 years old. So where was / is the sustainable design, construction and facilities management that everyone has claimed to be doing since ‘whenever‘?

a facilities management issue?

I question whether this is a design issue or the running of the building. Case studies indicate that Facilities Managers often lack the up to date eco-knowledge to manage complex building management systems, so manage all buildings ‘the same’.    In addition FM has largely been excluded from the debate, news and leading edge sustainability decision making, (at least publicly as a voice shaping our built environment sustainability future) and here we see the consequences.  (see my post on the UKGBC task group for example)

And the blame?

You can see the FM providers or managers from poor scoring buildings being called into board or chamber meetings or  to explain the low EPC score, and told to ‘do something about it’. After all no one wants to be associated with producing white goods that carry a G rating, so the same with buildings that carry a G rating.

and the costs

To be really meaningful, and easily understood the A – G ratings need to be converted into £ of wasted energy per building or per m2 for each building, to demonstrate the real cost to the tax payer of inefficient buildings or facilities.

and keep the focus on ….

It is necessary that focus remains on EPC, change will only come when the public, the building users and environmentalists (and bloggers) kept focus on EPC and displays, as with so many good initiatives this could easily fall away. Maybe the first fine for non display will sharpen minds.